The Bombers and the Bombed: Allied Air War Over Europe, 1940-1945 (Viking), by Richard Overy

In August 1939 Britain’s military concluded that it was
“clearly illegal to bombard a populated area in the hope of hitting a
legitimate target,” yet by May 1940 the RAF was bombing German cities with
little regard for hitting military targets. British historian Richard Overy
explores the shift in The Bombers and the
Bombed and explodes several assumptions. One, that Britain began leveling
German cities in response to the Luftwaffe’s blitz, is a falsification based on
hazy memory and propaganda. The RAF struck German civilian centers before the
Luftwaffe began its assault. Second, the success the U.S. and U.K. claimed for
its European bombing campaign was actually mixed and hard to measure. And its
advocates have always overstated the value of strategic bombing, whether of
Vietnam or Iraq. Overy fills his account with telling details. Who knew that in
the 1920s, America’s aviation hero, Milwaukee’s own Billy Mitchell, advocated
dropping gas bombs on civilians?